Surprise! I have Internet in Gambella

Hello Friends,

I have been pleasantly surprised to find that I am able to access the internet in Gambella! With this luxury, I thought I would try to give you some updates on the trip out here and what we have done since.

It is 777km from Addis to Gambella over a winding and mountainous road. Half the drive is over a nicely paved road, and the other half... not so much. Here are the things that we almost hit on the way (numerous times!

• People (they walk in the road, and do not often look to see if cars are coming at them)
• Donkeys (they carry people, wood, cement, water, etc...)
• Cows
• Horses
• Baboons (we saw about 10 packs of them on the way over)

The drive took two days, and the place we lodged on the way was something else. For the equivalent of $4.50 I had my own private room with a greasy pillow, a sign that said I could not take girls into the room with me, a battered mosquito net, and this is not to mention the bathroom that did not have a light, toilet paper, or a proper drain for the sink. Leaving this place was a relief!

Gambella is amazingly beautiful! It is so lush and the landscape often reminds me of Panama. So far our leadership trainings have not started, but we have been working hard to get everything organized as they start this Thursday. Mobilization, as they call it, has involved visiting many churches and other organizations that can easily recruit women to attend the workshops. The most interesting meeting so far involved me and three other colleagues sitting in a dark mud and grass building with the church leaders before us and the elders behind us. 

One neat thing for me has been to see many of the organizations I have been studying in school actually  operating here. This includes UNDP, UNICEF, World Food Program, Medicin San Frontier, International Committee of the Red Cross, etc... It has really helped me put my studies into perspective. There is a small orphanage that supports about 85 children that we will visit tomorrow, and I have already talked with another one that is hosting 550 children under the age of 18! Also, as Gambella is relatively close to South Sudan, there is a refugee camp here that we will be visiting soon as well. 

It is a really amazing place! The people are so kind! So kind! In fact the only person I have "interacted" with that was negative was a European that was running a church here. Go figure. Anyways, I have been attempting to show the locals that we Americans aren't so bad after all. I'll be sure to keep you posted on how it goes for me.